Bronson Pinchot’s Breakout Performance In ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ Would Never Have Happened If Not For An Extremely Late Martin Brest

There are those who consider Bronson Pinchot’s big break to have been his role as Balki Bartokomous on ABC’s Perfect Strangers, but while Balki might have made him a prime-time superstar, the true breakthrough moment for Pinchot came slightly before that, when he played Serge in Beverly Hills Cop. It only took a minute and a half of back-and-forth dialogue with Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop to turn Pinchot into the talk of the town, and while that ultimately proved to be a hindrance on the sitcom he’d just signed on to do – it was a series called Sara, which you’ll be reading more about in a few moments – there’s no question that if it wasn’t for Serge, then Pinchot probably wouldn’t have been a part of Perfect Strangers.

Paramount has just released the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy on Blu-ray, and in conjunction with the set hitting stores, Pinchot hopped on the phone with Decider to talk about the whole Serge situation (including his reprisal of the role for the third Cop caper), as well as the experience of working with Martin Scorsese on After Hours, the craziness of filming his death scene in The Langoliers, and how helpful his side career in audiobooks has been for his other acting roles.

DECIDER: As small as it may have been, it’s hard to understate how important the role of Serge was to your career, but I recently read that you would’ve completely missed that opportunity if they hadn’t filmed your scenes when they did.

BRONSON PINCHOT: That’s correct. [Laughs.] That’s absolutely correct! I can almost remember the exact day. We were scheduled to fly to Florence on July 7 – or something like that – and we had a lead time of three months or something, and…I didn’t know anything, really, about how films worked. They kept changing it and changing it. Because it was an interior shoot, and they probably got lucky with their exteriors or something. But whatever it was, I remember very grandly saying to my agent, “Well, I’m not going to miss a trip to Florence, so Thursday we’re leaving, and if they get it, they get it, and if they don’t, they don’t.” God. What did I know? And I literally did it, finished shooting, and we got on a plane!

Have you ever considered what might’ve happened if the shoot had run late?

Yes, of course! I mean, not only that, but when I went to the audition, Marty Brest was seeing people, and Marty is a wonderful, wonderful actor’s director, the epitome of the actor’s director. So he was three hours behind and, after 90 minutes, I called my agent and said, “This is outrageous! I’m sitting here and hour and a half, going on two hours… I mean, my God, what’s wrong?” And she said, “Well, you’d be totally within your rights to leave!” And I said, “Well, I think I will!” So I sat right down and waited. [Laughs.] But if I’d been pompous and marched out… [Trails off.] And the funny thing is, I remember that because I sat there for three hours, I had come up with this crazy character. It wasn’t in the script. In the script, he was just a regular American. And I went through all the stages in those three hours: “Do I dare? Do I dare do this? No, I’m not going to do this. Let me come up with something more conventional. But who cares? God, I’ve been sitting here for over two hours now. I don’t care what I do!” And by the time I went in, I had that perfect combination of brazenness and “who cares” that is absolutely the key to comedy.

You just can’t care, really. You can’t care. You’re just, “Out it comes!” That’s the difference between being funny with your friends, who are, like, “Where did that come from?” and stuff that you rehearse. That’s why it was so wonderful: from the audition right through the filming of it, Marty was, like, “Let’s see what happens.” Which is why what happened was a thing that was never planned. That’s the key to the kind of comedy that really gets under your skin, because the kind where you rehearse it and rehearse it, and then you do it, and then the audience laughs, you go, “Oh, well, that was a good laugh.” But it’s when you’re almost opening your mouth without not really knowing what’s going to happen – which is quite a bit of what you see on the screen – that it’s extraordinary. But those three hours that I spent cycling through all those thoughts… Oh! And when I was waiting, there was a weird little movable sculpture on the coffee table. and I carried it in with me. And when Marty grinned at me and said, “I’m so sorry you’ve been there for three hours,” I said, “Oh, no, it’s okay. I found a million great things to do with this sculpture. One of them is that I think I’d like to wear it in the Easter parade.” And I just put it on my head. [Laughs.]

To this day, because of that, before a super-important creative meeting, I will say to myself, “Why don’t you drive there, make sure you have a sandwich and a lot of power in your phone, and just sit under a tree for two or three hours and let all the silliness cycle through? And by the time you’ve gotten rid of all the surface stuff – you know, the dead skin – the really good stuff will come out.” I learned that from that experience. And I never forgot it.

So once you got there, how was the experience of working with Eddie Murphy?

I recently read that Eddie Murphy was quite shy when he was young, and I don’t doubt that. Carol Burnett and I did a show once, and she looked at me for a long time at lunch, and then she said, “You are one of us.” I said, “And that means?” She said, “You’re an introvert who does a damned good imitation of an extrovert.” And she was 100% right. But when we were shooting the first Beverly Hills Cop, Eddie never spoke to me at all directly, except to say that Popeye was on, and I didn’t know what that meant. [Laughs.] It turned out that it was a non sequitur, which all comedians love. But the rest of the time, if he had anything to say, it was conveyed through the bodyguard. He didn’t do it to intimidate me, he was just overwhelmed himself. And 35 years later, that is the gift that keeps on giving, because to this day, every time I’m on a set, I keep my antenna open for who’s the smallest guy on the totem pole who doesn’t think he’s worth being talked to, and I go over and chat with them. And I always do that in memory of being this terrified day player on Beverly Hills Cop, because… I don’t know that if would’ve helped my performance, but I just felt very alone. So I always do that in memory of that. Because it’s not the stars who need to be put at ease, it’s the guy who doesn’t think he’s worth talking to.

You played Serge again in Beverly Hills Cop III. Did you have any hesitation about reprising the role?

I did. I didn’t think that lightning would strike twice, and I said, “No.” Because so many wonderful things had come out of the first one, and it was such a pristine little piece of luck. I thought, “Oh, no, no, no…” But [John Landis] wheedled me and cajoled me and got me to do it, and it was great fun. But at first I didn’t want to do it, because… I mean, the response to Serge in the first film was all out of proportion. You know, the scene is a minute and a half, and I was feted all over the world! When I went to South Africa, I was at a big banquet in a room that was the size of a square city block, and Nelson Mandela sent a messenger over to say, “We know that Serge is here.” [Laughs.] Honest to God!

That’s awesome.

It’s insane! [Laughs.] It’s insane what that minute and a half led to!

Before it had a chance to lead to anything, though, you were already in the cast of an NBC sitcom: Sara, starring Geena Davis and a cast that was absolutely filled with actors who were just on the cusp on becoming huge.

Yeah, and it’s funny, because when I auditioned for Sara, Beverly Hills Cop was not out yet, and I was really starving. Like, really, really starving. Literally starving. But I auditioned and I got it, and they gave me – and I guess everybody – a little gift basket, because it was Christmas. And I was a nobody, so I got the smallest gift basket, but it had, like, a package of water crackers, an apple, and a piece of cheddar cheese. And I lived off that for two weeks. I kept looking at the apple and thinking, “Please don’t go brown, please don’t go brown…” And I’d take the skinniest slice of that cheddar. And at the end of the two weeks, a friend called me and said, “Drop everything and go read Newsweek Magazine.” And I said, “Why?” He said, “Just go find a copy. I can’t do it justice, but they said stuff about you in Beverly Hills Cop.” I couldn’t even afford a Newsweek, so I started walking to the grocery store to go read it, and on the way to the grocery store, a call pulled up on the sidewalk with people screaming. And I thought they were going to kill me. [Laughs.] But they just wanted to say that they’d seen Beverly Hills Cop and thought I was funny! And there I was, eating pieces of cheddar so skinny that you could see through them!

So we go to work on Sara, and by the time we start to work on Sara, even though I was the lowest man on the totem pole, I got more press coverage than anybody! It…didn’t go down that well. [Laughs.] It was like the Princess Diana syndrome: I wasn’t asking for it, but everybody was focusing on me. And as the weeks went on, they made my part smaller and smaller and smaller, to kind of make sure I didn’t overpower anyone else, and… Oh, it was a hideous situation. Fortunately, it was canceled. But it was hard! You know how sometimes with twins, one’s a big, outgoing sports star and the other one’s shy and retiring, and everybody ignores the sports star and tries to cheer up the shy one? It was like I was being punished for being suddenly famous. I thought, “What am I supposed to do, apologize? Say ‘no’ to the interviews?” But it was an awkward, awkward time. Fortunately, it fizzled.

You know, the concept of Sara was the bigger sell than the actuality. It had all these great people in it, and it was, like, we had the “black lawyer,” the “gay lawyer,” the this lawyer, the that lawyer… But the show itself was just setup, punchline, setup, punchline. It wasn’t anything remarkable. But the idea was good. You know, the funny thing was, I was playing the “gay lawyer,” and they never in any way, shape, or form wrote to the gayness of him. They never wrote stuff for Alfre Woodward that was what a black lawyer might actually want to be working on. She just happened to be black. And Bill Maher, I forget what his angle was supposed to be, but none of us really got to do anything. It was all, like, “Let’s say you’re this, let’s put the Halloween outfit on you, but don’t do anything.” I remember once I was supposed to be watering a plant, and I said, “Well, he should be talking to the plant. I think that’s what…” “No, no, no! Don’t do anything!” [Laughs.] And then I jumped right from that to Perfect Strangers, and I got to be the antithesis of that character! Holding performers back once you’ve cast them to break through the fourth wall and grab your attention is a strange thing to do. But people do it. And I think it led to a very pallid show. Although I never watched it…and apparently neither did anyone else!

The only other thing I wanted to ask about Sara was in regards to one of those other cast members you mentioned. How was Bill Maher as a sitcom actor?

Bill Maher and I hit it off very, very well. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but we hit it off, and he was a great stalwart supporter of mine, and vice versa. I thought he was wonderful. Of course, I didn’t know he was going to be Bill Maher. None of us knew what was going to happen to anybody else. But he was fantastic. He was a stand-up comic, he was very wry, very funny. And in watching each other and hearing the off-the-cuff comments, we both thought we were way better than the material, and we would sometimes have suggestions and…we wouldn’t even be shot down. We’d just be looked at like we were pigeon poop on an outdoor table in Redondo Beach. It was, like, “Oh, no, that’s just not even gonna happen.” But, yeah, I thought he was wonderful. He was a great friend and supporter, and a nice person.

How was the experience of working with Martin Scorsese on After Hours?

Oh, that’s fun. You know, this is one of my favorite stories. I had worked with an absolutely amazing background extra on The Flamingo Kid, one of the most beautiful human being I’ve ever met to this day. She looked like a runway model. She was just astonishing. And we found out one day that we were living in the same apartment building in New York, and we had an affair. And then the affair ended because we were on different coasts.

Well, all of a sudden, I’m doing this scene in After Hours…and there she is! Sitting at the next computer terminal, just starting at me with this complex look that people get when they’ve had affairs with you and you’ve had affairs with them. And Marty Scorsese came running up to me and grabbed me under the arm and hustled me into the hallway and said [Very quickly.] “We don’t have time for a lot of takes. Now, you are playing a kind of nervous vulnerability which I don’t want you to play, because you have vulnerability written all over you. You don’t need to play vulnerability. What are you doing?” And I said [Even more quickly.] “There’s a woman at the next terminal that I had an affair with and she’s staring at me!” He said, “We’ll get her moved!” [Laughs.] And he got it done and had her hustled to another computer terminal.

It was funny that the whole thing happened in, like, one long breath, but Marty Scorsese knows what he’s about, and I never forget – especially the older I get – what he said: “You’ve got vulnerability written all over you. You don’t need to play vulnerability.” It didn’t help much on Perfect Strangers, because Balki was a vulnerable, optimistic person. But as I’ve gotten older, the less I play anything, because it is written all over my face. They don’t teach you that in acting school. They tell you, “Get it out there, get it out there!” But Scorsese was the first person to get right in my face and say, “It’s all right there. Don’t play anything. If you do, it’s too much.” Words to live by.

How have you enjoyed the voice work you’ve done over the years?

It’s fun. [Hesitates.] It’s fun-ish. [Laughs.] I haven’t done so much voice work for animated series lately as I’ve been doing a lot of audio books. And that’s nice, because it’s a more fully-rounded storytelling experience. What happens a lot in voiceovers in cartoons is that they want it zanier and zanier and zanier, and you do it to the point where you’re not longer sure where you live in it. But with audio books, you’re not just the narrator, you’re every single character. There’s nothing like it in all of performing. As a matter of fact, I love to do musicals, but I was out of musicals for 10 years, and when I went back, the director of the musical said, “Okay, we’re going to have to do some heavy coaching if you haven’t sung in 10 years, because I want you at your best.” And after 20 minutes, he said, “Wait a minute: did you tell me the truth?” I said, “Yeah!” “You haven’t sung in 10 years?!” “No!” “That’s not possible! Your breath control is astonishing!” And then he said, “Wait a minute: how many audio books have you done in that time?” I said, “360.” He said, “That’s it! That’s what did it. You kept your breath control at top level!”

There was a review of one audio book that I cherish. The book was about Armageddon, which is neither here nor there, but it said, “It’s worth listening to all 10 hours of it to hear from somewhere out of Bronson Pinchot’s throat – I’m not sure where – the voice of a dying old black woman, and you totally believe it.” [Laughs.] And I remember that character! I remember looking at the engineer through the window and saying, “Well, here goes nothing. It’s not gonna be Cicely Tyson, but I’m gonna give it my very, very best!” But, yeah, you play everybody – male, female, old, young, not even human – and it comes in handy. I just did an episode of Project Blue Book where I had to channel an entity from another dimension that didn’t even speak English, and the director said, “Bronny, are you ready for this?” And I said, “Yeah!” She said, “What are you gonna do?” I said, “No idea. I’m just gonna open my mouth!” And we did about three takes, and then on the fourth one it just came out, and she said, “God bless you, child!” Because it was like three or four in the morning, and we were in the middle of the woods. But it’s the audio books! You don’t have time to call your manager or call your acting coach or study your navel and do a handstand. You just have to say, “Okay! Dying old black woman during Armageddon!” And you see what pops out. It’s really great. It doesn’t pay very well, but the work itself is awfully great.

I know we’re on a time crunch, but before we go, I have to ask you about your performance in The Langoliers.

Oh, now that was a thing. [Laughs.] So it’s Stephen King, I’m this crazy character, I’m nuts, and at the very end I’m lying on the ground and the Langoliers are eating me. Well, I show up on day one, and all I’m supposed to do is this scene where I walk two steps, I say, “Hello,” and I walk away. The director comes up to me – Tom Holland, the dearest man you’d ever want to meet – and he said, “Bronson, the plane that we’re going to shoot three-quarters of the film on, it didn’t show up. It hasn’t arrived. It’s stuck somewhere. Can we do your death scene?” And nowadays I would say, “No, but I’ll take you to lunch, and I’ll massage your back, but, no, I won’t do my effing death scene on day one. I don’t even know my character yet!” But he said, “Please, little buddy? Please?!” And I said, “Sure.” Because I was a nudnik. [Laughs.]

So I get on the ground, covered with blood, he gets up on a ladder with a camera next to his head, and I’m thinking, “All right, well, besides being such a good sport, he’s going to give me some direction that’s gonna put me right there.” And he holds up his hand, right next to the camera, and he goes, “Okay, these are the Langoliers, and they’re eating you from the feet up. Aaaaaand – chew, chew, chew, chew, chew – ACTION!” I’m lying on the fucking asphalt, I look up at the makeup woman who’s drenched me from head to toe in Karo syrup dyed red which is supposed to be blood, then I look at the director, and I say, “Um, isn’t there going to be some incredible John Ford moment where you say something to me that gets me there?” And he goes, “Chew, chew, chew, chew, chew.” It was absurd. They never used the take. [Laughs.] And then – as God almighty is my witness – for the alternate take for the European version, which had more hideous stuff – he said, “Aaaaaaaand they’re chewing through your crotch!” I was, like, “Oh, good, I’ll do more bloodcurdling screams instead of those embarrassing, totally unearned bloodcurdling screams!” And between those two extremes – Scorsese saying, “Don’t do anything,” and my dear, beloved Tom Holland on the ladder saying, “Chew, chew, chew, chew, chew” – lies the beauty of acting.

Will Harris (@NonStopPop) has a longstanding history of doing long-form interviews with random pop culture figures for the A.V. Club, Vulture, and a variety of other outlets, including Variety. He’s currently working on a book with David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. (And don’t call him Shirley.)